1. Heads of Sixth Form Updates
STUDENT FINANCE OVERVIEW
Heads of Sixth Form Updates
October 2018
Ahmar Ehsan
Funding Information Partners Account Manager
Student Loans Company

2. SECTION 1
POLICY UPDATES 2018/19
OVERVIEW

3. i ACADEMIC YEAR 2018/19 UPDATES SFE Undergraduate News and Updates:
DSA Applications now available online (faster process for students)
E-signatures available for new students applications since 25th March 2018
Password Reset – One Time Pass-code
AY 2019/20 – What can we expect?
Repayment Threshold Increase from April 2019 – April 2020
EU Students protected in AY 19/20 – Eligibility rules unchanged

4. i STUDENT FINANCE ENGLAND GENERAL ELIGIBILITY – RESIDENCY
Students need to meet certain residency criteria in order to be eligible for financial
support from SFE:
Have settled status – Can live in the UK without any Home Office restriction
Be ordinarily resident in England on the first day of the first academic year of
their course
Been living in the UK for the three years immediately prior to this date
Support available to you might vary if you are an EU student or hold a status such as refugee or EEA migrant worker
You can call SFE on if you are unsure
Exceptions
If the student, their spouse, civil partner, parent/stepparent are recognised by the Government as a refugee and lived in this country since this status was awarded.
If the student, their spouse, civil partner, parent/stepparent, have been granted Humanitarian Protection to stay in the UK by the Home Office, resulting from a failed asylum application.
If student is the child of a Swiss national or Turkish worker, and been ordinarily resident in the EEA and Switzerland/Turkey for the three year period immediately before the first day of the first academic year of their course
Long Residency Rule
The long residency regulation extends eligibility for student finance out to students who qualify under and can evidence one of the following criteria:
Applicants aged under 18 years of age are required to have lived in the UK for at least 7 years
Applicants aged 18 years and above are required to have either spent at least half their life in the UK or at least 20 years in the UK
This needs to include three years’ lawful ordinary residence before the first day of the first academic year of the course for all such applicants

5. i STUDENT FINANCE ENGLAND
NON-UK NATIONALS WHO HAVE LIVED IN THE UK A LONG TIME
The long residency regulation extends eligibility for student finance out to
students who qualify under and can evidence one of the following criteria:
Applicants aged under 18 years of age are required to have lived in the UK for at least 7 years
Applicants aged 18 years and above are required to have either spent
at least half their life in the UK, or at least 20 years in the UK
This needs to include three years’ lawful ordinary residence before the first day of the first academic year of the course for all such applicants

6. STUDENT FINANCE 2018/19
MAINTENANCE SUPPORT – 2016 COHORT
SECTION 1

7. £ £ £ i £7,324 £8,700 £11,354 MAINTENANCE SUPPORT
MAXIMUM MAINTENANCE LOAN RATES 2018/19
2016 cohort FT students, not eligible for benefits or aged over 60
Parental Home Rate:
Live at home while they study
£7,324
Elsewhere Rate:
Live and study away from home outside London
£8,700
London Rate:
Live and study away from home in London
£11,354

8. SUPPLEMENTARY SUPPORT
DISABLED STUDENTS’ ALLOWANCES
SECTION 1

9. i i DISABLED STUDENTS’ ALLOWANCES ONLINE APPLICATIONS
Many students will now be able to make their application for DSA online:
To apply for DSA online, students;
Must be full-time undergraduate
Must be studying from 2017/18
Must be applying for DSA for the first time
Must apply for core support (even if £0 requested)
The online DSA application process is available to both new and returning
students, but they must be ‘new’ to DSA’
The ‘My Account’ information will direct students to send their evidence
to or via post to the usual address
All other students will apply for DSA using a paper application form
and following the existing process i

10. i DISABLED STUDENTS’ ALLOWANCES 2018/19 MAXIMUM RATES Allowance
Part-Time
Max Support
Full-Time
Frequency
of Payment
Non-medical personal helper
£16,489
£21,987
Annual
Specialist equipment
£5,529
Duration of Course
Other disability-related expenditure
£1,385
£1,847
Disability related travel
No Limit – Reasonable spending can
be claimed

11. STUDENT FINANCE 2018/19
POLICY – INDEPENDENT STUDENT STATUS
SECTION 1

12. i i STUDENT FINANCE 2018/19 INDEPENDENT STUDENT STATUS
A student can be assessed as being independent if they:
Are 25 or over before the start of the academic year
Are married/in a civil partnership/divorced (even if under 25)*
Have care of a child
Have no living parents
Are irreconcilably estranged from their parents
Have been the subject of a care order (Care Leavers)
Cannot trace their parents or it is not practical or possible to contact them
Have supported themselves financially for at least three years**
*The income of the student’s husband, wife or civil partner will be
taken into account **Prior to the start of their course i

13. WHO IS AN ESTRANGED STUDENT ?
An Estranged Student is defined by SLC as:
`A student who has limited / sporadic or no contact with either of their biological / legally adopted parents. Therefore they do not maintain what SLC would consider as a functioning relationship. This includes living away from parents and receiving no emotional or financial support`
SLC should as far as possible, satisfy themselves that the estrangement and students circumstances are genuine and that reconciliation in the future is highly unlikely if not impossible.

14. i CHARITIES & OTHER SUPPORT Stand Alone http://standalone.org.uk/
PROPEL
The Become Trust
Brightside
NNECL
The Care Leaver Associations
Student Finance _All Domiciles
Estrangement - Estrangement assessors - Darlington Based E:
Tel:
Independent Enquiries Inbox - Darlington Based E:

15. i
PREVIOUS & REPEAT STUDY

16. STUDENT FINANCE 2018/19
PART-TIME STUDY
SECTION 1

17. i PART-TIME UNDERGRADUATE SUPPORT
Tuition Fee Loans available – max amount £6,935 for AY 18/19
Maintenance Loans launching for new students starting some courses in AY 18/19, e.g. Bachelor degrees, Integrated Masters, PGCEs
Further part-time courses planned to be in scope in future academic years
Maintenance Loan amounts will be a proportion of the full-time amounts, linked to course intensity, paid to student in 3 instalments per academic year
More info and applications at

18. i PART-TIME MAINTENANCE LOAN ELIGIBLE COURSES
Summary of qualifications and Part-Time funding available in AY 18/19:

19. STUDENT FINANCE 2018/19
APPLICATIONS & ASSESSMENT - OVERVIEW
SECTION 2

20. i STUDENT FINANCE APPLICATIONS KEY MESSAGE – APPLY EARLY
Each year thousands of students apply late for their finance and have no
way to pay for their course or accommodation, some even have to drop out!
Please encourage the students you work with to apply on time!
It can take up to six weeks to process an application so apply early
The easiest way to apply is online at gov.uk/studentfinance
Students don’t need a confirmed place at university or college to apply
Apply with their preferred choice, they can change details later if needed

21. STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENTS
INCOME THRESHOLD INCREASE FROM
APRIL 2019
SECTION 3
All information subject to final policy approval

22. i i STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENTS AN OVERVIEW
Students won’t make repayments until their future income is over £25,725
a year gross (before tax), or the weekly/monthly equivalents:
If they study a full-time course, students will be due to start repaying in
the April after graduating from/leaving higher education
They’ll repay 9% of any income earned over £25,725 and if employed, deductions will be made from their pay through the HMRC tax system*
If their income falls to £25,725 or below their repayments will stop
Any outstanding loan balance will be written off 30 years after entering repayment
*If students move or work overseas, repayments will be 9% of any
earnings over the threshold for the country they are living in i

23. Monthly repayment comparison of £21,000 and £25,725 thresholds:
STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENTS
THE ‘NEW’ FIGURES - FROM APRIL 2019
Monthly repayment comparison of £21,000 and £25,725 thresholds:
Annual Gross Income
Monthly Repayment
£21,000)
£25,725)
£25,725
£30 £0
£30,000
£67
£32
£40,000
£142
£107
£50,000
£217
£182
£60,000
£292
£257

24. Income linked ICR Plan 2 Interest Rates with £25,725 income threshold:
STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENTS
INCOME THREHSOLD INCREASE – APRIL 2019
Income linked ICR Plan 2 Interest Rates with £25,725 income threshold:
During study until
entering repayment
Interest Rate:
Retail Price Index +3% %
Interest rate is:
Set at RPI Only
Income:
Under £25,725
Interest Rate:
RPI Only %
Income:
£25,725 to £46,305
Interest Rate:
RPI + up to 3% %
Income:
Over £46,305
Interest Rate:
RPI +3% %
The interest rate is updated once a year using the RPI figure
from March which is carried forward and applied in September i

25. i SFE RESOURCES WWW.PRACTITIONERS.SLC.CO.UK
Click image to link to page

26. i i SFE RESOURCES SFE INFORMATION ON UCAS
To help students as they plan to go to university, we’ve launched a new space
on the UCAS website:
It has all the student finance information they need, including;
What they can get
How to apply
How and when to repay
There’s also student finance information for continuing students and for
anyone thinking about doing a postgraduate course
To help students as they plan to go to university, we’ve launched a new space on the UCAS website. It has all the student finance information they need, including: what they can get,
how to apply, and
how and when to repay.
There’s also student finance information for continuing students and for anyone thinking about doing a postgraduate course. For the most up-to-date information, encourage your students to visit
For the most up-to-date information, encourage your students to
visit: i

27. i INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS www.thestudentroom.co.uk/studentfinance
Click any image to go to 16/17 resources page

28. i KEEP IN TOUCH CONTACT DETAILS Contact Me: ahmar_ehsan@slc.co.uk
Contact Us:
FI Partners Account Manager Team